Defenseman Michael Marcou contributes for UMass

Not the way some of us are watching it – hoping to take off a few pounds despite not bothering to track our caloric intake. Marcou, instead, is trying to put weight on. To play defense in Hockey East, you need a mountain of muscle mass to stand up to the slamming you absorb from those opposing 6-foot-3 trees that make their protected forest an outstretched limb outside the goal crease.

Marcou, a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts, is listed at 5 foot 11, 158 pounds, and he needs to gain weight. So what’s his favorite food when he pulls up to the table?

“Steak,” he said, without hesitation.

“Michael got stronger in the off-season, and worked real hard,” said UMass coach Toot Cahoon. “He’s put on 10 pounds, but we feel he needs to put on 15 more to be where we’d like him to be. It’s obviously difficult during the season because of all the conditioning.”

Marcou and the Minutemen hope to make the University of New Hampshire both their main course and dessert this weekend in two games at the Mullins Center. The teams clash Friday and Saturday, starting at 7 p.m.

UMass is 6-1, 3-1 in Hockey East. UNH is only 2-5-2 overall, mostly because of a pair of road losses at No. 1 Miami of Ohio, and another two setbacks at Wisconsin. But the Wildcats are 2-1-1 in league play, so they’re much better than their overall record shows. It’s an important weekend for both teams.

If you’re only a casual fan of UMass hockey, and the name Marcou seems familiar, it’s probably not because of Michael. His older brother James is the leading scorer on the team with three goals and 10 assists for 13 points as well as a Hockey East first-team all-star last year with 15 goals and 32 assists for 47 points.

James Marcou, a junior, is on track to becoming one of the all-time best players in UMass program history, but Michael is showing he’s not just “the other Marcou.”

A terrific skater, Michael is noticeably more at ease now coming out of his own zone as opposed to a year ago. And so far, he’s also a surprise category leader. He has the best plus-minus figure (plus-7) on the team, and has also scored two goals, one a game-winner against Maine. He had eight shots on net in a weekend split with Providence, was a plus-2 against Boston University and a plus-1 against RPI.

Last year, he played in 20 games, had no goals and one assist, and was a minus-8.

“I have more confidence this year, I know what to expect,” said Michael, who is usually paired with left defenseman Doug Kublin.

Personality-wise, Michael is more the jokester in the locker room than James, according to Cahoon.

“They’re both outgoing, but Michael is more of a clown,” Cahoon said of Michael’s prankster creativity.

But maybe that’s to get back at James from childhood days. They are exactly 18 months apart. Was James the big brother Michael looked up to, or was he a bully?

But there’s no sibling rivalry, Michael said. “He’s a forward, and I’m a defenseman.”

They did play together in junior one season for the Waterloo Blackhawks of the United States Hockey League. And with the way Michael’s been performing, it looks like he’s going to stay in the lineup, and they’ll be playing together even more the next two years.

UP TO THE MINUTE: The Minutemen are ranked No. 10 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, and No. 14 in the USCHO.com poll.

Friday night’s game will be the 100th meeting all time between the teams, with UNH carrying a 75-17-7 advantage. All three games last year went into overtime, with the Wildcats gaining the only win while the other two contests remained tied.

UMass is tied for fifth nationally in scoring with a 3.86 goals per game average, and has the fourth-best power play in the country with a conversion rate of 30 percent.

After five home games, the Minutemen are averaging 5,196 fans per game, 11th nationally. On the ice, UMass is 4-1 at home after going only 9-8-1 at home last year.

Following the weekend set, UMass plays nationally ranked Yale in a non-conference game Thursday at Ingalls Rink in New Haven.